THE OLD “SPORTS GROUND”

Evening Star, Issue 19519, 29 March 1927, Page 10

THE OLD “SPORTS GROUND”

PRIME MINISTER GHATS TO RETURNED MEN “ I had the opportunity of going over one of your old sports grounds in France a month or two back,” said the Prime Minister (Hon. J. G. Coates) at ( tho Returned Soldiers’ Club Rooms yesterday afternoon, amidst laughter. “It is much the same old thing,” he added, “and you would have no difficulty in recognising it again, though the earth has been cultivated and many buildings have gone up.” ■ , . ~ . Tho Digger Prime Minister was speaking of his recent visit to the battlefields of France, and for twenty minutes or so regaled his listeners with a few of his experiences in tho country where he, like thousands of his fellow-countrymen, fought so,gallautly. Mr Coates paid a great tribute to tho efforts of tho War Graves Commission, stating that the graves were wonderfully well kept. “There was a sort of reverence about all their work that particularly appealed to me,” lie added. It was quite easy to recognise the graves, thanks to the labors of the men who looked after them. The men were practically all “Tommies,” though there were a sprinkling of Canadians and Australians. “It is startling to see the enormous number of graves, there being German ones as ■well as British and French, hut death has wipe' out the old feelings one had in those terrible times.”

The graves in the Tynccot Cemetery wore beautifully arranged and cared for, and although it was winter when ho was in France he noticed a number of shrubs and flowers. At Viiny Ridge there were 20,000 French, 40,000 British, and from 75,000 to 80,000 German graves, and just below the ridge was the Canadian Memorial. The graves were all carefully marked. “ I called at some of the old billets,” continued Mr Coates, “and, as some of you chaps would have done, asked where Mademoiselle was.” (Laughter.) Most of them had been married for many years, vouchsafed the speaker. He had spent four or_ five days in Franco, and he was delighted to seo what had been done for those New Zealanders who remained overseas. Tho French people were very pleased to seo a New Zealander amongst them again, and at Ypres, the old mayor, who was over eighty, gave his party and the Prime Minister a wonderful reception, calling out the hand._ Everywhere he found people jnost sincere in their inquiry for the Now Zealanders. They had not forgotten their old friends in this country. At the conclusion of tho Prime Min-_ ister’s delightfully informal little chat ho was lustily cheered, and the gatherlug serenaded him with 1 For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.’ Mr Coates was later shown over the building by members of the executive.